September 4: Health Care Reform News

By Kelley Luckstein

Inside Healthcare at the Mayo Clinic

"Good Morning America's" Robin Roberts visited the Mayo Clinic to find out more about what some people call a radically different approach to practicing medicine that aims to provide high level care at a lower price.

The Mayo Clinic also attributes its success to a team approach they call "integrated coordinated care." Doctors with different specialties work closely with each other on a patient's case and seem grateful for the extra support.

"Is it encouraging that if you don't know something you can ask…in other hospitals it's almost like they don't want to share information," Roberts asked Dr. Todd Baron, who specializes in endoscopies… "Exactly, it's very encouraging," Baron replied.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has warned that progressive proposals for reforming health care will add to the deficit that looms over our economy. But when you stop to think about it, just how likely is it that CBO can accurately predict the cost of health care reform—and the savings that it will generate-- over a ten year period? Virtually any economic predictions that attempt to go out ten years are, at best, guesstimates. Only a very foolish investor would attempt to project a single company’s earnings out over ten years: how can one “score” the effect of very complicated legislation on a $2.6 trillion industry?... The Mayo Clinic did not set out to save money. It set out to make sure that “the patient always comes first.” The savings followed because better care is cheaper. . In the end, what is required is not a financial formula, but a creative effort, by a community that says “It can be done. We can do it.”

With President Obama poised to give a health care address Wednesday, administration officials promised he will deliver a detailed prescription for reform despite the risks of spelling out exactly where he stands.

La Crosse, Wisconsin often shows up on "best places to live" lists, but residents say it is also a good place to die which is how it landed in the center of a controversy that almost derailed health care reform this summer.

The family doctor said he’s hooked on the consumer- governed, non-profit health cooperative where physicians aren’t beholden to shareholders and patient satisfaction drives decisions on care and costs.

Dismayed by the number of poor children about to be dropped from a publicly subsidized health insurance program, California lawmakers voted to levy a tax on insurance companies to help maintain the program.

Even as liberals urge President Barack Obama to demand bold, far-reaching changes to the nation's health care system, the White House signaled openness Thursday to compromises that might attract moderate congressional Democrats as well as some Republicans.

A key Republican wants President Barack Obama to consider a more incremental approach on health care when he addresses Congress next week, while Vice President Joe Biden said the administration is still pressing for "something substantial."

Most top Democrats, including senior White House advisers, may no longer expect a health care deal out of the bipartisan “Group of Six,” but the senators still plan to talk Friday for the first time as a group in more than two weeks.